Malaysia's engagement with the ASEAN inter-parliamentary assembly (AIPA) : Delegation, challenges and prospects for regional parliamentary diplomacy

This study examines Malaysia’s participation in the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) between 2009 and 2018, focusing on Malaysia’s delegation patterns, constraints, and the prospects gained from engagement in regional political security cooperation. AIPA functions as a regional inter-parliamentary platform that enables dialogue and cooperation among ASEAN legislatures and provides a complementary channel to executive-led diplomacy. Using a qualitative research design, primary data were collected through semi-structured interviews with seven parliamentary experts selected via purposive sampling. These data were triangulated with document analysis of ASEAN and AIPA materials, Malaysia’s House of Representatives Hansard records, media reports, and relevant scholarly literature. The findings identify seven key challenges affecting Malaysia’s practice of parliamentary diplomacy within AIPA: ASEAN dominance over AIPA, political system diversity among members, the consensus requirement, limited capacity of parliamentary actors, weak report-back practices, limited implementation mechanisms for AIPA resolutions, and low public visibility. Despite these constraints, Malaysia gained strategic advantages through its participation in four key AIPA meeting platforms between 2009 and 2018. Guided by the Principles of Parliamentary Diplomacy as a conceptual framework, these prospects are categorised into three main dimension: institutionalisation, complementarity to traditional diplomacy, and knowledge exchange. Grounded in neo-regionalism and parliamentary diplomacy, the study suggests that while Malaysia’s formal implementation of AIPA resolutions remains limited, sustained participation supports trust-building, policy dialogue, and knowledge exchange, which complement state-diplomacy. Overall, the research positions AIPA as a semi-formal diplomatic platform that can strengthen ASEAN’s regional governance through more inclusive legislative engagement